Again, Hall says he will challenge Parker

By Joe Holley |
January 18, 2013
| Updated: January 19, 2013 1:23pm

Benjamin Hall III,
57, served as a city
attorney under
then- Mayor Bob Lanier.

Nearly two decades after first announcing his interest in running for mayor, Houston lawyer Benjamin L. Hall III, made it official this week: He will be a candidate to unseat two-term Mayor Annise Parker.

Hall, a city attorney in the early 1990s administration of Mayor Bob Lanier, considered running to succeed Lanier and frequently expressed interest in subsequent election cycles. He announced his candidacy in 2009 but withdrew when Gene Locke, also a former city attorney, entered the race; Parker defeated Locke in a runoff. Two years later, Hall again expressed interest in running.

Despite skepticism on the part of local political observers that he actually will run, Hall this time has filed a form designating a treasurer and co-treasurer for his campaign.

He also has chosen a slogan, "Hall for All," emphasizing his ability to unite people.

Hall charged that Parker's 16-year tenure at City Hall as a council member, controller and now mayor has produced "leadership fatigue."

'We need a vision'

As mayor, he said, he would focus on job creation, economic growth, international trade and a more creative, compromise-oriented approach to the city's pension challenges.

"This is really a world-class city, and we're treating it as kind of nothing more than the fourth-largest city," he said. "This city is in communication and dynamic relationships with the entire world, but we need a vision coming out of the mayor's office that actually promotes that as a priority, as opposed to a tertiary or corollary idea."

A personal injury lawyer, Hall has been in the news most recently as the attorney for Chad Holley, the teenage burglar whose 2010 arrest was caught on videotape, which appeared to show police officers hitting and kicking the youth as he lay on the ground. He also bought a home in the Memorial area last year after questions were raised in years past about whether he actually resided in Houston.

Parker won her second two-year term in 2011 against a gaggle of unknown, underfunded candidates, but she barely avoided a runoff with 50.8 percent of the vote. That slim margin suggested vulnerability.

Rottinghaus noted Hall's funding capability, his vision and his qualifications but suggested that "with Parker's nationalizing profile and perceptions of her doing a good job, it is a more uphill fight."

Runoff problematic

Rottinghaus added that Parker's most formidable challenge may not be Hall, per se, but a crowded primary field that could squeeze her out of a runoff.

"In a runoff, a well-funded candidate like Hall that can put the right coalition together could have a chance," he said. "This may be the model - almost successful for Gene Locke - that Hall is looking to create."

"Annise Parker could be the odd person out," Woodfill said. "She doesn't have the constituencies that the other three would have, plus I don't think she has lived up to her campaign promises. She promised to stay out of party politics, but she was an outspoken supporter of Obama."

Woodfill and others recall just such a scenario in 1990 when mayoral candidates Lanier and state Rep. Sylvester Turner, an African-American Democrat, squeezed out five-term incumbent Kathy Whitmire, who finished a distant third.

Former Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt said he and Woodfill discussed the possibility of him running for mayor but said his interest was predicated on the possibility that Parker may leave office early to take a position in the Obama administration, thus necessitating a special election.

"In a special election, I could see what the party chairman is pitching, because that's a low-turnout scenario that would be favorable to Republicans," he said.

Bettencourt also suggested that Hall's candidacy was based, at least initially, on the possibility that the mayor would leave office early.

"The glacier's moving," he said. "The question is, where is it going to stop?"

No compelling issues?

Parker said last week that she anticipated having multiple challengers in an election that still is nearly a year away. Asked about Hall, she seemed to work in an early jab without mentioning him by name.

"Lots of folks are probably going to run," she said. "There have been several folks who have been putting their names out, taking them back, putting their names out, taking them back. I'm just going to run my race."

Potential opponents, she said, may have a hard time coming up with compelling issues.

"I'm proud of my record, and I'm interested to see what issue anyone will raise, considering how well Houston has done in navigating an extremely difficult economy and how we are putting jobs into the community, which is one of the most important priorities I've had," Parker said.